


Story Time

by write_my_heart_out



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Annabeth tells Percy's family about the spiders, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Spiders, fears, story time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:33:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23227897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/write_my_heart_out/pseuds/write_my_heart_out
Summary: Little Estelle wonders if Annabeth got her powers of intelligence from a spider, like Spiderman. Annabeth reveals that she's actually quite close to the truth.Or...When Annabeth musters up the courage to tell Percy why she really ran away, and trivia night turns into something a little different.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Paul Blofis/Sally Jackson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 79





	Story Time

Annabeth was a wizard at Trivial Pursuit, and no one could beat her. One night, Estelle decided she wanted to be on Annabeth's team since she kept winning. Percy complained a little about losing his girlfriend to his sister, but he sat with his mother to play, anyway. Paul, with six-year-old Estelle on his lap, sat next to Annabeth, and so they began the game.

Percy was the first to ask. "Annabeth," he began. "Alfred Nobel, father of the Nobel Peace Prize, made his fortune with the invention of what?"

"Dynamite," Annabeth answered immediately.

"Correct." Percy grinned. "How the fudge did you know that?"

Estelle jumped up and down on her fathers lap, grinning. "Annabeth has superpowers!"

Everyone laughed, but Percy said, "She sure does," and looked back at the card in his hand to ask another question. "Next one. Which Russian ruler taxed every citizen with a beard because being clean-shaven was all the rage in Europe in 1698?"

Annabeth paused for a moment before answering confidently. "Peter the Great."

Percy nodded. "Yep."

"Woah!" Estelle cheered. "Mommy, can I have Annabeth instead?"

Percy's jaw dropped. "Hey!"

Sally chuckled. "Well, not really, but Annabeth is amazing, I agree."

Estelle's face dropped. "Well, I'll still have piggy-backs, I guess," she murmured.

Annabeth whispered something in her ear, probably about how she could give piggy-backs, too. Estelle glared at Percy. "Be more smarter," she commanded.

Percy playfully glared at Annabeth. "Wow. You're making me look bad, Wise Girl."

Annabeth blew a kiss to him and then picked up the empty bowl of chips in the middle of the table next to the board. "I'll go refill this," she offered. Percy put down the card he asked the questions from and distributed the well-earned points.

Estelle leaned back onto Paul's chest. "I think Annabeth got her superpowers because a spider bit her when she wasn't looking," she decided.

Annabeth, who had just reentered the living room, heard the bit about the spiders, and dropped the full bowl of chips. Her hands shook horribly. Percy leapt to his feet and pulled her in for a hug, rubbing her back in circles. He kissed her head and let her stop shaking before saying anything.

"Hey, Wise Girl, it's okay," he promised. "You're okay. There aren't any spiders here." He ran his hand through her hair.

"But I was bitten," she whispered to him. "By a whole lot of spiders. And I was definitely looking."

Percy looked at her face. "Do you want to tell me?" He cupped her cheek with one of his hands, and she leaned into it.

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I can."

Percy lead her to the coffee table and they sat down next to each other, Annabeth leaning on Percy for moral support. Sally reached her arm out to rub Annabeth's shoulder comfortingly. Estelle sat quietly, waiting for the story to begin.

Annabeth took a deep breath. She didn't like talking about this. In fact, she'd never told anyone about this since she'd run away. "When I was..." She took another deep breath and set her hand on Percy's knee. She started again. "When I was seven, for some reason, Arachne decided that she wanted to pick on me. One night, while I was in bed, a few spiders crawled over me. I hadn't ever been near spiders before, but they scared the sh - they scared me a lot." She continued to tel them about her stepmother not caring, how they came back every night for three nights but the bites disappeared, and how on the last night, she ran away. She buried her face in Percy's shirt when she finished and took several breaths to choke back tears. He kissed her head.

"I'm so sorry, Wise Girl," he apologized. "I never should have let you go down... _there_ on your own." He wrapped both arms around her and held her as she steadied herself.

Estelle was the next to move. She stood up and moved to sit on the other side of Annabeth, and she gave her a hug, too. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. I didn't mean to make you sad."

Annabeth looked down at the little girl and shook her head. "No, Estelle. It's okay. It's the spider's fault for coming to bite me when I was only a little bit older than you."

Estelle froze. "Am I gonna get attacked by bugs when I turn seven?"

Percy quickly shook his head. "No, no," he rushed. "No way. Absolutely not. You're gonna be absolutely fine, Stella. Don't worry. Annabeth is... different. Some people just don't like her and her siblings because they don't like her mom. But everyone likes our Mom, so you're okay."

Estelle nodded, then went right back to hugging Annabeth. "Okay. Can someone tell me a good story?"

Annabeth had a fun idea. She sat up. "Well, actually, I have a super fun story. One time lots of years ago, before you were even born, Percy and I were at camp for winter vacation. The first day was really fun! We went canoeing, and we sang at the campfire, and then we went to bed. But in the morning... he went missing!"

Sally laughed. She knew where this might be going.

Estelle gasped. "Oh, no! Did you find him?"

Annabeth paused, not knowing how to answer that. Percy put a fist to his mouth to stop himself from laughing. "Well... you'll just have to listen to the story, won't you?" Annabeth decided.

Estelle gasped. "I'm listening!" She put both her hands over her mouth enthusiastically.

Annabeth grinned. "We looked for him everywhere. A few days later, I met some new friends who were gonna help me find him! We found a big dragon in the woods that could fly, named Festus, and so my new friends went on an adventure to find clues to look for Percy." She found it somehow easy to turn the most devastating part of her life into a fairytale-like story. "When they came back, we built a huge boat with a dragon head on the front, just like our new friend Festus, and it took a super long time to make. Almost the whole entire camp helped out. It took months to finish it. When we finished, my three new friends and I got on the boat, and the boat flew across the whole entire country."

Estelle frowned. Her hands dropped from her mouth, into her lap. "Boats don't fly, Annabeth! Boats go in the water!"

Annabeth smiled. "Oh, but this boat was magical. It flew all the way from here to California." She didn't know if Estelle knew how far away California was, but she hoped her voice made it sound super far away. "When we got to California, we saw this huge hidden city, full of people! And do you know who I saw there?"

Estelled made a face, thinking. "Was it Freddie Mercury? Was he in the hidden city? Because I've never met him, so he must be in the hidden city."

Annabeth and Percy simultaneously looked to Sally. That was going to be hard news to break to Estelle, that Freddie Mercury wasn't actually alive anymore. Instead of saying anything, Sally shrugged.

Annabeth continued with her story. "No, Estelle. It wasn't Freddie Mercury. It was Percy!"

Estelle gasped and clapped. "You did find Percy! Yay!"

Annabeth nodded. "Do you know what I did when I found him?"

Estelle shook her head.

Percy grinned.

Annabeth leaned in and whispered, "I gave him a big, fat kiss on the lips."

Estelle giggled. "Ew! You kissed him on the lips?" Estelle made a grossed-out face, sticking out her tongue as if she tasted something bad.

Annabeth smiled. "I sure did, Estelle. Just like this!" And she turned and kissed Percy right on his lips. Estelle made a faux-disgusted noise. Annabeth held the kiss for a second, just because, and then pulled away. She looked back at Estelle. "But you know what else I did?"

Estelle shook her head. "No. What did you do?"

"I grabbed his wrist and flipped him right over my shoulder so he was on the ground, and then I told him to never, ever go missing again," she told the little girl. "The End."

Estelle clapped and smiled. "Yay! I liked that story."

Percy wrapped his arms around Annabeth's waist and pulled her onto his lap. "And because I never did go missing again, can I have another kiss?"

Annabeth smirked. "Yes, you may." And Annabeth kissed him again, right then and there, and Estelle looked away with a dramatic "ew!" and the spiders were forgotten.

The End.


End file.
